Assistance Dog Tasks

by
Joan Froling

Pioneers of the assistance dog concept in the 20th century have greatly
enriched the lives of thousands of disabled persons worldwide with their
discoveries. They devised mutually beneficial ways for assistance dogs and
disabled people to work together to overcome or mitigate the difficulties
imposed by certain disabling conditions.

Teamwork with a dog schooled to perform useful
tasks empowers disabled individuals to function with greater self sufficiency,
to prevent injuries, to summon help in a crisis, and to be aware of events in
the environment. This report identifies over one hundred possible tasks that
guide, hearing and service dogs can master to assist with daily life activities
and safety concerns. Today, an estimated 20,000 teams in the USA and thousands in other countries from Europe
to Japan to South Africa to Australia
and New Zealand
are reaping this legacy of empowerment.

GUIDE DOG TASKS

Although it is uncommon to discuss guide dog work in terms of tasks being
performed, a guide dog's four to six month education involves mastering a set
of tasks which, taken together, allow a blind or visually impaired individual
to negotiate the unseen environment with greater safety and independence. One
guide dog user of my acquaintance neatly summarized the work performed guide
dogs as follows: "Guide dogs take directional commands and institute a
path of travel, indicate changes in elevation, indicate and avoid oncoming
traffic, navigate around obstacles and locate objects on command.

The human partner makes most of the decisions for the team, giving the dog
directions and determining, after listening to the flow of traffic, the most
optimal time to cross each street. Guide dogs are carefully conditioned to
refuse the "Forward" command under certain circumstances where it
would be unsafe to proceed, something termed
"intelligent disobedience." A dog does not have the reasoning power
to comprehend the inherent danger in traffic. The net effect of the
conditioning, however, is a habitual reaction from the dog to specific stimuli
which substantially improves team safety. It should be noted this skill
deteriorates over time if the handler forgets to appropriately praise the dog
for avoiding a situation. Like other assistance dogs, a guide dog relies
heavily on the team leader's feedback, especially praise, to reinforce and
motivate desired behaviors.

The tasks or duties listed below have been
grouped into three primary skill categories. Obstacle
Avoidance, Signaling Changes in Elevation and Locating Objects. The
majority of guide dogs work through a harness with a U-shaped handle that
attaches to the harness and allows for vertical and some lateral movement. Some
but not all may learn to do leash guiding as well. Whenever navigating around
obstacles, the dog is schooled to return to the original path of travel as soon
as possible. This may include moving into a road to walk around something then
locating the safer pedestrian path once clear of the obstacle. Schools in North America vary in how much work is put into the tasks
listed under Locating Objects. Some handlers put in extra work on
"Find" command tasks with very impressive results. While a few owner
trainers and private trainers include retrieving in a guide dog's repertoire,
the guide dog schools no longer teach it as a mandatory skill, so it has been
listed under the title, "Other Possible Tasks."

Leash guiding around
obstacles indoors or outdoors for a short distance

Intelligent Disobedience as
in refusing a command to go forward into the road if there is oncoming
traffic or intersecting traffic in the team's path. The dog is also
trained to halt, abruptly, rather than collide with a vehicle that
intersects the team's path when it enters the intersection during the
team's crossing

SIGNAL CHANGES IN
ELEVATION

Halt or Sit to indicate
every curb

Halt to indicate descending
stairs at the top of a flight of stairs

Halt to indicate steps up
into a building or patio area

Halt to warn of edge of
subway or train platform

Halt to warn of approach to
edge of cliff, ditch, other outdoor drop-offs

Halt when confronted by a
barrier such as at construction site

Intelligent disobedience - refuse
a command to go forward if there is a drop-off

LOCATE OBJECTS ON
COMMAND

Find an exit from a room;
indicate door knob

Find the elevator bank

Find specific entrances
and/or exits

Find an empty seat, bench, or
unoccupied area

Find a customary seat in a
particular classroom

Follow a designated person
such as a waiter to restaurant table, clerk to elevator, etc.

Locate specified destination
such as store in mall, hotel room or home from a distance, once all other
decision points such as intersecting streets, hallways, etc. have been
passed

OTHER POSSIBLE TASKS

Retrieve dropped objects

Find desired object like the
morning newspaper on the porch

SPECIAL NEEDS GUIDE
DOG

Dogs trained solely for guide dog work are
sometimes partnered with deaf blind students or mobility impaired blind
students by schools specializing in such placements. In the last decade, some
ground breaking experiments have taken place, combining the role of a hearing
dog with that of a guide dog for deaf blind students or combining a guide dog's
work with wheelchair pulling and/or other service dog tasks. This inspiring
research has expanded the frontiers of knowledge as to a guide dog's
capabilities and may someday give new options to
disabled people with dual impairments.

HEARING DOGS TASKS

Hearing dogs are schooled to alert to the specific sounds needed by their
partners, primarily in the home setting. Some hearing dogs also work outside
the home, alerting to specific sounds in public settings. Most are shelter dogs
who receive three to six months of schooling from
providers or dedicated owner trainers on sound alerts, obedience and public
access manners.

It is a common misconception that hearing dogs typically alert a deaf or
hard of hearing person to sounds by barking at them. Barking or growling is
generally undesirable as it may not be heard by the deaf partner, will unnerve
or frighten other people and if the handler shows approval, it can easily
worsen the dog's fear or over protectiveness, which usually is the underlying
cause of this response.

Instead of barking hearing dogs are trained to get the attention of their
human partner by touch, (either a nose nudge or pawing) then the dog leads the
partner to the source of the specific sound. Some trainers may teach the dog to
lie down next to their partner to indicate a smoke alarm after alerting the
partner to the event with a touch. Leading the partner toward the sound in the
case of a fire alarm may not be safe. For that reason a number of handlers
prefer to have the dog indicate the smoke alarm indirectly and to wait for the
human to decide what the next response should be. Responding to specific sounds
in public or in a moving vehicle also requires a slight adjustment of the
customary response to suit the location.

Some hearing dogs master additional tasks, enhancing communication between
family members. This can be especially helpful in households with a child,
those where more than one member has a hearing impairment or households where
one or more members are non verbal.

ALERT TO SPECIFIC
SOUNDS AT HOME

Doorbell ringing

Knock on front door

Rapping on patio door or
window

Smoke alarm sounding

Wind up minute timer, oven or
microwave timer going off

Baby crying

Family member or other
calling the name of the dog's partner

Child calling
"mommy" [or other name, if applicable, such as daddy, grandpa,
aunt]

Phone ringing

Alarm clock buzzing

Computer equipment beeps

Horn honking in garage or
driveway

Arrival of school bus

ALERT TO SPECIFIC
SOUNDS AWAY FROM HOME

Siren of police car, fire
truck or ambulance and indicate direction

Smoke alarm in workplace

Distinguish phone ringing on
partner's desk at work from all other phones in workplace

Name of partner if coworker,
friend, family member calls out that name

Cell phone or beeper

Smoke alarm in hotel or work

Fire drill at school or work

Vehicle honking to attract
attention

OTHER POSSIBLE TASKS

Retrieve unheard dropped
objects like keys , coins, or other objects

To enhance security when the
team arrives home after dark, the dog enters the home first to turn on a
light, nudging the metal base of a lamp with a touch lamp device

Carry a note from the
partner to another household member, searching the house to find that
individual

Carry messages between spouses,
utilizing objects which signify dinner is ready or that the person needs
help right away, and so forth.

Have the dog find and return
with the hearing impaired person.

Warn of a vehicle
approaching from behind, or making a sudden turn. A task that applies the
intelligent disobedience principle to hearing dog work

SERVICE DOG TASKS

Service dogs generally receive six months to a year of schooling on tasks,
obedience and public access manners. Most dogs placed by non profits since the
1970's have been trained to assist people who have a wide variety of mobility
impairments. Some teams have mastered up to fifty tasks, enjoying the challenge
of such an advanced education. The list of tasks in this section are a broad
sampling of what has been developed over the past quarter century to address
daily living needs and safety issues.

A number of the traditional tasks listed below are proving useful to
individuals with hidden disabilities such as a seizure disorder, a psychiatric
disorder, a potentially life threatening medical problem or conditions which
cause chronic pain. Creative providers, graduates and owner trainers who are
expanding the service dog concept into these additional areas will hopefully
share the experimental tasks they develop with the larger community someday,
providing task training particulars so others can benefit. In some cases, a
responsible third party, usually a parent or a spouse facilitates the
interactions between a disabled person and his or her service dog to optimize the
benefits to be obtained from including a service dog in the independent living
plan of that individual.

For specific tasks to address specific symptoms of disabilities like
Parkinson's Disease or MS or Epilepsy or any other
disabling condition, one option is to research the subject by consulting with
training providers familiar with those conditions. A second option is to send
out a specific information request on email lists in the assistance dog field,
gathering a variety of input. As a precaution, a second query, asking trainers
and handlers for recommended ethical and /or safety guidelines in connection
with any task being considered, may yield valuable input to assist with
assessing the appropriateness of the suggested task for a particular team. A third
option is to search archives for newspaper stories, magazine articles,
television newscasts and documentaries which may focus on a particular
disability or provider or type of assistance dog. Books on training guide,
hearing or service dogs, autobiographies, biographies and works of fiction may
in some cases, provide additional information on the desired topic.

A myth that ought to be challenged is the belief on the part of some that
service dogs are only for the most severely impaired or end stage of a
degenerative disease like MS. Someone who is considered much more moderately
disabled, struggling with the difficulties of living alone, maintaining a job
or raising a family could find teamwork with a highly trained service dog to be
of enormous benefit in achieving the goal of remaining as self sufficient as
possible. A number of tasks enumerated in this section could empower such
individuals to conserve energy, reduce or avoid pain, minimize dependency on
loved ones, prevent injuries or get help in a crisis.

Help ambulatory partner to
climb stairs, pulling then bracing on each step [rigid handle or harness
with pull strap may be used to assist partner to mount a step or catch
balance]

Pull partner out of aisle
seat on plane, then brace until partner catches balance [harness with a
rigid handle and a pull strap, or pull strap only]

Brace, counter balance work
too, assisting ambulatory partner to walk; the partner pushes down on the
rigid handle as if it were a cane, after giving warning command, when
needed

Help ambulatory partner to
walk short distance, brace between each step [rigid handle]

Transport textbooks,
business supplies or other items up to 50 lbs in a wagon or collapsible
cart, weight limit depends on dog's size, physical fitness, type of cart,
kind of terrain

Backpacking - customary
weight limit is 15% of the dog's total body weight;10% if a dog performing
another task, such as wheelchair pulling in addition to backpacking; total
weight includes harness (average 3 - 4 lbs.). Load must be evenly
distributed to prevent chafing.

OTHER KINDS OF
ASSISTANCE IN CRISIS

Bark for help on command

Find the care-giver on
command, lead back to location of disabled partner

Put forepaws in lap of
wheelchair user, hold that upright position so wheelchair user can access
medication or cell phone or other items in the backpack

Wake up partner if smoke
alarm goes off, assist to nearest exit

MEDICAL ASSISTANCE
TASKS (Sample)

Operate push button device
to call 911, an ambulance service or another person to help in a crisis;
let emergency personnel into home and lead to partner's location

Fetch insulin kit,
respiratory assist device or medication from customary place during a
medical crisis

Lie down on partner's chest
to produce a cough, enabling patient to breath, when suction machine
and/or care-giver unavailable

Comments?Questions?
Contact Joan: iaadp@aol.com

Copyrighted April 16, 2001

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